


Walk Until Exhaustion

by blasted0glass



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 01:07:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18954835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blasted0glass/pseuds/blasted0glass
Summary: Try to avoid accidents at work.





	Walk Until Exhaustion

“Are ye comfortable with the process?”

“No. I never will be.” I struggled into my hauberk, just a little annoyed. George had asked the same damn question every single day since I first started my work as a Research Assistant. It was his way of reminding me not to get complacent, to not think that my work was 'safe'.

“Good. Let’s run through the checklist.” I hated the checklist. “Do ye have all yer equipment?”

“You just watched me put it on!”

“Not missing any pieces, are ye? List them.”

“No, I’ve got everything. Iron rings on wrists and legs. Mail for my chest. Coins in pockets: silver discs in the left, iron in the right.” I jangled my pants to check. The silver coins had an altogether more agreeable sound, which made sense because they were the catchall offering. I opened my bag to show George the others: firecrackers, apples, a lead rod, a letter, incense, nutmeg, and gold. Or as the Acronym of Offerings said, FALLING.

“What about your radio and your spade?” I held up one, then the other. “Good. Let’s review the Responses.”

“Ugh, if you insist. I haven’t forgotten anything since last week.”

It took a few minutes. It was mostly listing the types of offering that were effective on the various types of Fey, reminders not to turn too fast or move too quickly, that sort of thing.

"And what do ye do if ye walk through a Fairy Ring?"

"Walk until exhaustion," I said with relief. That was the last and most important Response.

Normally a person transferred to the Fey realm would just wait and pray. It had been determined that Fairy Rings would return a person unharmed approximately thirty percent of the time if they just refused to move from the spot. If you walked around, not only were you more likely to encounter a Fey, but there would be no telling if you’d come out in the same state or even the same century.

At the Research Park they wanted you to behave somewhat self-destructively. We had been instructed to avoid contaminating the Fey Realm where it was adjacent--that is, to specifically flee as far as possible if we happened to walk through a Fairy Ring. That was because of our armor.

Iron and other items the Fey found undesirable would take weeks or months to come back, disrupting the formation of Fairy Rings the entire time. In fact, iron was so good at disruption that if a Fairy Ring formed nearby the city wall it would typically be ‘salted’ with fragments of nails. Expensive, but worth it. The nails made subsequent formations erratic and unpredictable. However, that situation was specifically undesirable for research.

Hence the requirement to move--if we had to die, it would be convenient to die somewhere else and avoid ruining any experiments. The protocol was to walk to exhaustion, i.e., to never be heard from again. It was speculated that if you went far enough you wouldn’t even come back to Earth. Of course, nobody had experimentally verified that--I liked to think that the odd researcher who was forced to disappear experienced amazing adventures far in the future.

The punishment for failing to walk away from the Park when transferred to the Fey realm was execution, but as far as I could tell they had never had to enforce it. Research Assistants were lost rarely enough, and disobeyed the imperative to walk away even more rarely. However… not everyone had been so lucky, or obeyed the rules.

A few years prior the Park had closed for six months to wait for the debris to clear from one Assistant that had refused to walk. His armor had come back over those six months, one bloody ring at a time. George had described it to me in great detail. They had all been sad at his loss, then later cursed him as his cowardice interfered with their work.

 _Our_ work, now--I'd be a Research Assistant for a year.

Everyone else who had been lost had apparently followed the protocol. If they had fared better, I didn’t know it. I had a respect for those researchers. We were risking our lives to try to find a way to limit the formation of Fairy Rings, to eliminate the Fey as a threat to humanity. Maybe one day humans would be able to walk freely and fearlessly through the forest, thanks to our efforts. Maybe one day cities wouldn't be sterile canyons of stone and concrete.

Those who walked themselves to exhaustion were motivated by the greater good, and so was I.

\---

“I’m going to get in the spotting box now,” George said. He went to the base of the ladder. The box was atop a watchtower in the center of the giant horseshoe shaped fields of the Park. I sat on a bench to wait while he examined the fields with his viewing telescope, well away from the border between grass and concrete. Finally, his voice came on over the radio.

“Visual sweep clear." That was good news--no Fairy Rings had formed since yesterday, or if they had they were still too small to be a threat. "Go ahead, now.”

I walked over the edge and tried not to hesitate. As my first step finally squelched onto the wet grass, I couldn’t help but notice my heart was pounding. Despite my professed boredom, stepping off the concrete was still terrifying and indeed always would be.

Concrete was safe. Nothing could grow in it, so concrete paths always lead where you expected.

\---

“Fungicide field eighteen is clear,” I said on the radio. My mushroom bag had over thirty specimens in it. These hadn't come from Fairy Rings, but if left alone every mushroom had the potential to sprout into one. I walked slowly over toward field nineteen, and for a moment I looked up at the tower and rested my arms on my spade. The spade wasn't really necessary unless I encountered a Ring, but it did serve as a walking stick.

I knew George was watching my back. Almost literally. I could avoid walking into a Fairy Ring if one happened to have formed in front of me,--but if one suddenly formed behind me then I was truly in danger. In that case the only path to safety would be over (technically) unchecked ground. I counted on his vantage point to avoid bigger rings. He was also there to spot the Fey themselves, though truthfully I'd never seen a Fey personally.

In this instance, the Fairy Ring formed in front of me. I felt a small adrenaline surge when I saw the circle of mushrooms. I radioed it in immediately.

“George, ring spotted. Looks like a diameter of..." from ten feet away it was hard to tell, "twenty-four inches.”

“I see it as well. It’s new, or it weren’t that big a few minutes past.” A moment, during which I knew he’d be sweeping his telescope over the entire field--again. “No sightings. Move to disrupt.”

“Confirmed,” I said. I stepped forward as calmly as I could. I would use my shovel to kill a few mushrooms at the edge of the circle, until the Fairy Ring collapsed. Hopefully nothing would step through in that time. “Four months. Not bad for a new fungicide.” I didn't mention how dangerous it was that this one had sprung up so quickly in a treated field--that was obvious to us both.

“Focus on the task at hand.”

“Sorry.” The mushrooms were writhing as I approached. I carefully planted my spade into the ground by one of them. The soil was soft, and the mushroom stopped moving as I uprooted it. Of course, there was no way I'd just go pick a mushroom that was part of the Fairy Ring. I wanted no part of me inside of it.

The other mushrooms continued their slow dance. By the time I had dislodged three of them, those remaining in the ring had slowed. Suddenly they all started to wither.

"Checking ring disruption," I said. I pulled one of the offerings out of my pack: an apple. That was the offering I preferred to test with--it was cheap and easily visible. I tossed it into the center of the ring. Thankfully, it stayed put.

I sighed. "Ring disrupted." The slightly-bruised apple went back into my pack. I might eat it later myself.

"I'm glad."

"I'll finish cleanup now." I pulled the mushrooms out of the ground carefully, gathering them into my bag. I had separate sleeves for each field, and a few smaller bags in case of a Fairy Ring. I labelled the mushroom bag after I filled it.

We'd use them to further test fungicides, though those mushrooms looked quite sickly already.

Once I was finished, I continued on to field twenty.

\---

It's very important that you don't lose focus after surviving a dangerous situation. There's a tendency to relax too much during the release of tension after a near miss. However, the danger hadn't truly passed, so I tried to not count my blessings early.

Thus, when there was another Fairy Ring on field twenty-two, I noticed immediately. "I've spotted another one. Diameter of twelve inches."

"I see it. It's also new. No sightings, move to disrupt."

"Confirmed. Two in one day!" I said as I walked up to the ring. The desire to converse was almost as overwhelming as my pounding heart--I guess I talk when I'm nervous. "It's actually about fourteen inches." Smaller was better, I believed. Large Fey couldn't cross in a small ring, and large Fey were more dangerous.

"Received." I imagined what it would be like to be George in this situation--it's not like he could do anything to make the ring go away faster. Maybe he would feel compelled to act, up in that tower, and have nothing to do. I planted my shovel near the edge of the ring.

Suddenly I was overwhelmingly filled with a sense of _wrongness_. I knew if I turned around toward the tower, where George was, I'd die instantly. I stopped digging for a moment.

"George, scan?" I said. My voice was surprisingly calm.

After a moment, "Still clear." I still felt incredible unease--I couldn't even move my foot to dig.

"I think I'm under compulsion."

"There aren't no Fey," he said, then: "Make an offering before you retreat." I shakily put my left hand into my pocket and pulled out a disc of silver. I gently tossed it into the Fairy Ring in front of me.

The coin disappeared the moment it touched the ground. The compulsion did not. It felt like something was standing behind me.

"The compulsion remains," I said over the radio. "I can't turn around. Is there something there?"

"No. There's nothing behind you."

"I can't turn around."

"Walk backward, then."

"It's against the rules."

"Rules are about situations. In this situation, ye should walk backward." I tried to lift my foot. It felt like it was made of lead and that my other leg was made of paper.

I heard a voice. "I'm sorry about this, it is terribly rude." A figure stepped into view to my right. He walked smoothly until he was on the other side of the Fairy Ring, then he turned to face me. He looked like a middle-aged man in fine dress of a past era. He smiled broadly, hands open, but then they came together and he began to rub his knuckles nervously. His hair was white and his eyes were red.

This Fey couldn't be a nature type. That meant he wouldn't respond to the apple or nutmeg. I still felt the sense of doom behind me, but it was joined by fear of the Fey in front of me.

"George, do you see that?"

"Confirmed. Follow appeasement protocol. Back away."

"Got it." I pulled out the gold coin, and tried to speak calmly to the figure. "I apologize!" I said. "I must be going. Please take this token of my sorrow that I cannot remain, and I will leave peacefully."

"Why thank you," he said. The coin disappeared from my hand, and appeared in his. "This will only take a moment. My name is James. And you are?"

"He named himself as James," I said into the radio. I had no intent of responding to his question. You never gave a Fey a name, even a false one. "He took the gold coin, but is seeking my name." I knew George would be taking notes whenever he wasn't looking in the telescope.

George knew as well as I did that James wasn't a named Fey we had encountered before. I was in uncharted territory. Later I'd come to understand that James was something like the Fey equivalent of a researcher, but in that moment I had no idea what to do.

I tried and failed to take a step backward. I felt unsteady. James was still looking at me expectantly.

"Actually, it doesn't matter. You don't have to introduce yourself," James said. "I just want to talk for a few moments."

"I..."

"There's something you've got to understand." He tossed the coin into the air and it disappeared. "There's a reason we make Fairy Rings."

"George? What should I do?"

"We aren't supposed to converse with the Fey," said George over the radio, "As soon as you are able, back away. I've called in backup." The Fey went on.

"You know, this valuable opportunity will soon pass. Maybe you should consider entertaining my dialogue?" I said nothing. "That's fine. You don't have to speak. I know your friend is listening, so really, I don't even need you. _George_ , can you hear me through the small metal bird?" George also said nothing, but I had my finger on the button of the radio--he'd be able to hear. "George, I'm glad you're listening. I don't see any reason to tell you _why_ we make Fairy Rings. I just wanted you to know that we do have reasons. We know there are reasons you make so many things out of," and his face turned to a scowl, "poisonous metal, incomprehensible as those reasons are."

"I don't like this," I said.

"That's fine. You don't have to like it," said James. I shivered as the sense of doom doubled. My legs were glued to the spot. I tried to move backward in any way possible--and I couldn't even fall.

"Are ye daft, boy? Get out of there!" said George.

"I can't move!" I said. "He's holding me here, my legs won't work!"

 James smiled. "That's fine, you don't have to go anywhere."

"Leave now!" I heard George shout over the radio. I turned to run. The compulsion finally broke as I did, but I still fell down. I had the strange sensation of ripping threads out of my legs, but when I checked later there were no injuries.

I found myself in purple-tinted fog that completely obscured the walls of Research Park. Looking down, I saw the edge of a much larger Fairy Ring. My stomach dropped.

"George?" There was no response, as I knew there wouldn't be. I was on the inside of the larger Fairy Ring. I turned around and saw that the Fey, James, had gone. The smaller Fairy Ring was still there, but it had obviously just been a distraction.

I hesitated. What to do now? I knew the protocol, but... I was stunned that I could die so quickly and easily. The fear started to bubble up within me then. I knew I was as good as dead, but panic wouldn't help. The panic itself was much too late.

Then my training kicked in. I started to walk. I had never, ever heard of a Fey that could lock in you in place. Protocols would have to be redesigned. I imagined that the other researchers would be talking about me for years.

I hoped they would have good things to say.


End file.
